We investigate the effectiveness of an educational intervention targeted at parents of children to encourage judicious use of antibiotics in a cluster randomised trial in urban Nepal. The intervention was delivered by community nurses during a household visit, supplemented by periodic reinforcement videos during the study period.
- Speaker
- Date
- Tuesday 24 Sep 2024, 12:00 - 13:00
- Type
- Seminar
- Room
- M3-04
- Building
- Van der Goot Building
We tracked child illness episodes and medication use using a mobile application. Among 238 reported episodes, antibiotics were used in 42% episodes, 65% of these without a physician's prescription. The intervention reduced non-prescription antibiotic use by 13.4 percentage points (41.1% at the base). It did not reduce the overall use of antibiotics.
Treatment households were 29 percentage points more likely to seek care at a hospital or a clinic during illness, but incurred 58% higher medication costs due to formal health service use.
The findings suggest that education interventions targeted to the population can reduce non-prescribed antibiotic use significantly and confirm the viability of mobile applications as a tool for monitoring antibiotics use in communities.
Online attendance
This is an in-person seminar, but a Zoom link is available upon request (healtheconomics@ese.eur.nl).
See also
- Related links
- Health Economics
